INTERVIEW-Motor racing-Webber turns Olympic spectator in break

LONDON Aug 3 While some of his Formula One
rivals head for the beach or jet off to glamorous hideaways
during the August break, Red Bull's Mark Webber is making the
most of the London Olympics.

He has been to the basketball, was at the swimming on Friday
evening to see Michael Phelps's last individual race in the
Olympic pool, will be going to the hockey on Monday and
athletics the weekend after.

"I'm loving it, brilliant," he told Reuters in an appearance
for sponsor Qantas just down the road from the beach volleyball
venue in central London. "There's no racing stuff going on."

In fact, even if the next race is not until the first
weekend of September at the classic Spa-Francorchamps circuit in
Belgium, there is always something rumbling on in the Formula
One world.

Webber's Red Bull team, the reigning champions and
championship leaders, have been embroiled in controversies over
ride-height and engine mapping systems that the governing FIA
have clamped down on.

The Australian doubted Red Bull were very different to other
teams in seeking to push development to the limit but somehow it
was always his team that made the headlines.

"I think it's incredibly boring for most people," said the
man currently second overall in the championship and 40 points
behind Ferrari's Fernando Alonso with nine races remaining.

"All we can do is keep passing every single test and we
have....it's not a one-make series, you can design a car to the
regulations and that's what we do.

"I know other teams have been asked to address things with
their cars, but they (the FIA directives) are not for general
consumption. And some of ours do make the general consumption,
which is just the way it's been."

DESIGN GENIUS

Last weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix saw Red Bull forced to
change their engine mapping. There were also questions about a
seemingly manually-adjustable ride-height system.

Webber said Red Bull technical director Adrian Newey was
just doing what he was supposed to do.

"Is he the Steve Jobs of Formula One?," asked the
Australian. "If Steve Jobs had not got up and said the first
Apple computer was the one to have, we wouldn't have had our
iPads. And that's what Adrian does.

"We know there are a lot of teams that copy what we have and
there's a lot of things where the interpretation of the rules
gets changed and we take it on the chin as well."

Webber was sure there would be something else along soon.

"Whether it's with the wings or whatever - and there'll be
something else I promise you that will pop up - we will always
pass every single test," he said. "Not one single team has
protested us, because they know it's within the rules."

Webber looked forward to Spa, a race he loves but has never
won, but refused to talk about his championship chances until
much later in the season. He dismissed Alonso's assertions that
Ferrari did not have the fastest car.

"I don't know who's got the fastest car," he said. "There's
always talk that it's not the fastest car, but you need the most
consistent one. I don't think anyone's got the fastest car at
the moment.

"We did after Valencia and then Fernando had it at
Silverstone until six laps to go and then all of a sudden we had
it again. And then McLaren turned up for a few weeks. And Lotus.

"Kimi (Raikkonen) pushed Lewis (Hamilton) over the line in
Budapest and before that we had Fernando winning with JB (Jenson
Button) there and me in Silverstone. So it is up and down,"
added Webber.

"We do know we can go there (to Spa) and have a chance, no
question about it. But I don't think anyone will sail off into
the distance. Those days are numbered."

Webber almost won the title in 2010, losing out in
devastating fashion in the final race in Abu Dhabi to team mate
Sebastian Vettel who had not led the championship all season.

There were plenty who wrote the Australian off after that,
with many suggesting he would not get a second chance. Webber
said it gave him "huge satisfaction" to be back in the hunt.

Watching Australian swimmer James Magnussen, who missed out
on a men's 100 freestyle gold by 0.01 of a second in a race he
had seemed destined to win also struck a chord.

"It's called the journey," said Webber, speaking from
experience. "He will learn absolutely a massive amount from
that. Even though it's so raw and hard to take at the time, it's
going to take obviously a while to get over but days will just
keep moving on.

"That's the amazing thing about sport. You put a huge amount
in to it and you want to get the most out of it. There's
expectation and results and targets you want to hit. And
sometimes they don't always come off.

"But he will be stronger for it."
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Patrick Johnston)

Next In Olympics News

Dec 9 A report that connected over 1,000 Russian athletes to a state-run doping system only scratched the surface of a drugs culture that may have touched all the country's Olympians, WADA Director General Olivier Niggli said on Friday.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland, Dec 9 The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Friday that a new report on state-sponsored doping in Russia had revealed "a fundamental attack on the integrity of the Olympic Games and on sport in general".

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